1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical communication module.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there is known an optical communication module which is provided at an end portion of a light path member such as an optical fiber and an optical waveguide and which electrically connects the light path member and the connector by being connected to a connector on the electronic substrate (for example, see JP2007-157363).
In such optical communication module, a plurality of electrodes 210 are provided at the lower surface side of the outside surface 200a as shown in FIG. 10 and a plurality of contacts provided at the inner surface of the connector and the electrodes 210 are to contact each other to be electrically connected when the optical communication module 200 is engaged in the hollow portion of the connector (omitted from the drawing) from above.
However, the electrodes 210 are disproportionately provided at the lower side of the outside surface 200a in the optical communication module 200 described in JP2007-157363. Therefore, also in connection with the placement of the contacts, the optical communication module 200 always had to enter the connector in a state where the lower surface thereof facing downward, that is, the optical communication module 200 had to enter the connector in a certain direction. Also in connection with pulling of the light path member 300 which is to be connected to the optical communication module 200, this greatly limits the flexibility of design of the electronic substrate to which the connector is to be mounted also.
For example, when the optical communication module and the connector can only be engaged in a certain direction as described above, it is difficult to meet the request to make the electronic parts thinner in the recent mobile devices. In recent mobile devices, there are many devices that have sliding mechanism where two electronic substrates which are electrically connected move in parallel to each other. In order to make the mobile devices thinner while being provided with the sliding mechanism, it is preferable that two electronic substrates 240, 240 and two connectors 220, 220 are structured so as to have a positional relation where the electronic substrates and the connectors are arranged alternately as shown in FIG. 9B and not in a structure where the two electronic substrates 240, 240 sandwich the connectors 220, 220 as shown in FIG. 9A. However, when the conventional optical communication module 200 which only can connect with the connector 220 in a certain direction is used, the 45 degrees-mirrors 310, 310 (see FIG. 10) at both ends of the optical waveguide film 300 which is to be connected to the optical communication module 200 need to be formed so as to oppose to each other in order to have the two electronic substrates 240, 240 be structured in the above positional relation without twisting the light waveguide film 300 as the light path member. Further, when the optical waveguide film 300 is processed so that the 45 degrees-mirrors 310, 310 at both ends of the optical waveguide film 300 oppose each other, there is a possibility that the operation becomes complicated, the cost may increase and the yield may be reduced.